3 Reasons Your Strategy Is Failing

In a Les Miserable the character Fantine is left alone and destitute opining: "I dreamed a dream in time gone by, when hope was high and life worth living." All too often this is what a strategy session can look like in organizations today...yes, today. It needn't be true.  The first step in creating a successful strategy is to consider the pitfalls.  You wouldn't leap before you look would you?  If Johnny jumps off a bridge you wouldn't follow would you?  Two wrongs don't make a right do they?  I can keep going but I won't. Let's just agree you need to know the dangers of strategy planning before you get started.  There are three that are killing you and your success.   Let's take them one by one:

1. You look just like the others.  Way back in the days of cavemen we didn't worry about strategy.  It was all muscle.  We didn't care if our plan was different we only need more strength to win.  Today, in most states, it's illegal club your clients and force them into a business relationship.  Well, except for some parts of the government.  Truth is you have to lure your customers and then provide a great value proposition to keep them engaged.  What Michael Porter has called Strategic Convergence has infected our board rooms.  Simply stated it means we measure what we believe our clients want and compare that against our competitors.  This process of benchmarking allows us to measure improvement and performance.  The problem is we all start aiming for the target of customer wants.  This of course presumes that the customers know what they want.  Henry Ford once said "If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse."  Don't look like your competitors.  
2. You are fighting for scraps at a table of pit bulls. What are you thinking?  Too frequently you are fighting to be the most attractive pork chop at the banquet.  You fight to give your product/service away.  There is a difference between cheap and affordable.  Don't be cheap.  If you must compete at this table make sure you have some great ties with small markets where you are the only dog invited.  Once you have it don't abuse it.  Take a day and read Blue Ocean Strategies by Kim and Mauborogne.  Stop non stop head to head competition, find some niche where you can thrive.
3. You aren't taking enough risk on innovation.  The concept of business people being this group of high rolling dangerous gamblers is wrong.  Most of us carefully consider the value proposition and act based on ROI or ROE.  Nothing wrong with being responsible but we better look hard at re-capturing the environment of innovation.  Let's see the resurgence of the entrepreneur.  This is where many of the opportunities for blue oceans are found.  Identify groups of risks and combine them when possible to provide adequate opportunity for success.  If you are too risk averse your competitors will blow by you and you can follow their trail.  Stop being mamby pamby and get going!

The Good Fight

Jane had just been given the news; quarterly results were bleak.  The new product was rejected by the market and she was running out of options.  True to her entrepreneurial spirit, she doubled down.  Sending R&D back to the drawing board she created tight timelines that urged the focus of company employees.  She pushed, prodded and persuaded the board to give her time.  Her plan was without contingency.  It was do or die.

Within a month, things were looking...

What is your fight?  What will you push and prod to make a success?  Is there a time to throw in the towel?  All victories are won with a little blood, sweat and prayers.  Are you willing to pay the price?

Full Steam Ahead!

Climbing hills is tough work, mountains are even harder.  Setting a series of achievable goals can bring a difficult goal within reach.  Set the mark and begin moving forward.  Too much time is spent contemplating obstacles that are far in our future, start moving and see your goals met.  There are many easy wins that can be found by taking one small step.

  Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great!"

                                    John D. Rockefeller

5 Steps to Influence

There is a power that is magical in business.  It comes from the ability to establish credibility.  Credibility goes a long way towards developing that magical power of influence.  Credibility comes from:

• Act with integrity.  (Integrity is not a set of values but the act of being consistent in what you say and what you do.  Even bad guys can have integrity if they claim to be bad and are in fact bad, they have integrity.  Often misused to mean a set of high moral standards.  Instead it is being who you say you are.)
• Have and know your core beliefs.  Where is your right and wrong?  Where is your line in the sand?
• Build win/win relationships.  Build relationships where win/win works.  Aligned values, goals and when possible make it fun.
• Lead the way.  Influence comes from successful experience.  
• Consider the future.  Thought leaders are often influential because they lead us in new directions.

 So there it is...what other steps can we take to be influential?

Swagger

How important is our image in business today?  It's easy, in the age of remote work and the internet, to forget the importance of representing well.  Shorts in place of suits, flip flops in place of wingtips are nice substitutions if you can swing it.  The question is, can we? 

Look at our global competition before deciding.  If you're happy to live with a single customer, certain that you can count on them to always be around then...who cares?  If you believe that if you aren't growing then you are shrinking, that there is someone in Mumbai or Hanoi or Beijing that wants your job and will throw their heart and soul into doing it better than you...just given a chance...  Well then off with the flip flops and on with the serious time to get into business face. 

When you know you are ready, you will show your swagger.  By the power of reciprocity, you will grow as a human and in your business.  Moreover, if your swagger is strong enough, you may just lead a few others to swag right along side.

Value

"What's it worth to you" the salesman asked.  "It meets your need, it's available and you obviously need it" he continued.  The customer stared into space with a dumbfounded expression.  "I don't get it.  What is the price" he asked.  The salesman a bit irritated said, "How much do you have?" The customer looked at the salesman in dismay.  "You are right, it does meet my needs and I need it, but I would never buy it here" he turned and walked away.

Of course that's not how business is conducted.  If it were, sales would be the most difficult job in the world.  Instead, the selling process is built around the framework of the value proposition.  It's a clear expression of what the benefits and costs are. Sometimes it's one sided and other times it's balanced.  It helps me, the customer to establish a measure of value.

Fine tuning the price of a product should involve a study of the elasticity of demand to a product (If prices go up will the customers follow?).  The value proposition is much simpler than pricing models.  It simply states:

All Benefits - All Costs = Value Proposition

Explain your offer to potential customers clearly.  It will help you find the right customers early and with a reasonable expectation of success.

I Can See Clearly Now...

"I just don't get it" said the entrepreneur.  "We make a fantastic product, in fact, better than any of our competitors."  The consultant asked, "What's not to get?"  The entrepreneur answered, "It's market share.  We are taking a nose dive."  "Draw your business model for me" said the consultant.  "I'm not sure I've ever done that, where would I start?"

The process of discovery often takes a curious path.  I have found through visualization team members, partners and clients can quickly digest complex information and discover inconsistencies and/or errors.  I'm providing a link to my friend Tom Hulme form the London IDEO office.  It's a great place to start and I think you will enjoy the process.  Click here to visualize your business model in 15 minutes.